The Shop
by 26Chapters
Summary: Abbie takes Katrina shopping.


Abbie's glad that she's secured a good parking space, exactly before the shop. On a Saturday, shopping malls and all the little shops in between could get very crowded, and parking space was hard to come by.

'So,' she steals a glance at the woman in the passenger's seat, 'I never got a chance to ask.'

'What would you like to know Miss Mills?' Katrina's soft voice asks. From the many things that Abbie has against Katrina (many being that one time Katrina appeared to her, and she nearly collided with a truck), she most of all doesn't like Katrina's voice. The smooth softness of it, as if she's an ancient princess taught especially to speak that way. Katrina's voice irritates her most of the time, the whispery tone of it.

'Where did you get tampons in Purgatory? Was there like a delivery guy or...because I don't remember seeing a shop.' In truth, she has several many questions, did Katrina sleep, did she ever bath, what did she do when she wasn't in the church, did she eat? But the tampon question is the one she feels is more appropriate, even though the answer will not make a difference to their shopping list, whether she used tampons in Purgatory or not, Abbie would still be getting those for her, among other things.

Katrina's face screws in confusion, and Abbie uses the time to unbuckle her seatbelt and step out of the car. As she's easily become accustomed to it (after just two days from Purgatory), Katrina easily follows what Abbie did, walking around to the side Abbie is.

'Where did I get what Miss Mills?' she asks. Abbie has told her a few times that she doesn't have to be so formal, that she can call her Abbie, but Katrina doesn't.

'Tampons,' Abbie says, starting to walk a step ahead of Katrina, 'you know, for your cycle.'

'My cycle?' her voice is terribly unsure. Abbie rolls her eyes. With Ichabod, it was, it is still much cuter, he has a genuine way of being puzzled yet so interested, that explanation is a pleasure for her. Mostly. With Katrina, it's well...different.

'Yes, your monthly loss of blood. When you're impure and say...your husband can't touch you.'

Wrong thing to say, for herself especially, it brings to her mind the unwelcome picture of Ichabod and Katrina sharing a kiss. That's much too much for so early in the morning. Abbie shakes her head to rid herself of the offensive image.

'My blood,' Katrina says thoughtfully, 'These...tam...things, are used for that?'

Abbie nods, looking at the woman a step behind her, 'What'd you use in your time? Disposable cloths?'

She really doesn't want to know the answer to that, so she's thankful that they've reached the door of the shop. Abbie opens the door for Katrina, allowing her to pass through the turnstile first.

'At the time, we had-'

'Katrina, I wasn't really asking,' she passes through the turnstile, 'Can you get that?' she points to a vacant shopping trolley. Abbie doesn't doubt that she and Katrina could become very good friends, it's just at the moment, she really has no idea how to begin adjusting to the fact that Ichabod won't be around her so much anymore. It's not all that nice to think of the two of them spending less time together. Of course she's happy that he has his wife back, but...there's a little jealousy there as well.

Katrina takes the trolley into both her hands, 'You're supposed to push it,' Abbie tells her. Katrina's dress, stylish though it is (kind of, sort of), isn't something she should be wearing on a normal day, Abbie notices with a smile, at least shopping for Katrina's clothing wouldn't be a problem.

'What are we getting Miss Mills?' Katrina pushes the trolley slowly.

'Things, that you need. Let's start over there,' she points to the far end of the shop, where she knows the female products are. She especially made a list so that she wouldn't forget anything. When she shopped with Crane, he pulled each and every item from the rack, shaking it and pressing it to his ear and asking her what it was for, that way she knew what to get him.

'So,' Abbie pulls out the shopping list from the jacket pocket, 'for now, you just need basic things. Like shampoo, shower gel or bath soap, lotion, toothbrush, that kind of thing. I suppose you could use Crane's things-'

'That would be improper,' Katrina cuts her off, the suggestion evidently very wrong, 'Men and woman simply do not share things. In a marriage it's permissible yes, but I have reservations, Ichabod knows this.'

Yeah sorry, Abbie thinks, I guess I shouldn't tell you about all the times I've used his things.

'Okay, understood,' she tries not to smile, 'we'll get you your own things. But for the record, it's not unusual for men and women to share things, even if they are just friends.' Abbie remembers when she was at the academy, how a group of friends went through one container of deodorant until it was empty.

'Do you share anything with your friends?' Katrina asks, 'Or with Ichabod?'

Ah, now Abbie gets it, Katrina wants to know if she shares anything with her husband, the answer is yes, because she's convinced him that he needs to start being part of the current century, She obviously won't tell Katrina that, she gives a small laugh instead, 'Crane? Yeah, no, he's a bit too much for me. Half the time I have to force him to do things.' It's not all that true, but she can't right out answer, 'yes'. Katrina only nods quietly. Looking for an excuse to escape the heavy atmosphere, Abbie looks for items on the list that would on the shelves they are passing. She finds something, but it's not on the list.

'Katrina,' she calls her back, she's pushed the trolley a bit further from Abbie, 'we have to get this.' Katrina comes to Abbie with the trolley.

'What is it? she wants to know. To answer her question, Abbie pulls four packets of liquorice into the trolley.

'Crane loves these,' she says with a smile, remembering how he came to love liquorice.

'What is this Miss Mills?' the look she gives the black sticks is amusing to Abbie, 'It looks rather...vile.'

'They're sort of sweets. Kind of, or they are, I'm not really sure. Sticky and sweet, and taste like tar, a lot. He loves them,' Abbie takes hold of the trolley, pushing it ahead of them.

'And they are edible?' she asks with uncertainty, looking at the four packet as though they will jump out and attack her. Abbie, to prove to her that they are edible, rips one packet open, takes a one long rubbery stick out and sticks it into her mouth, 'See?' she says after she's bitten a portion off. Katrina looks confused, disgusted and afraid at the same time, 'They are sweets you say? Ichabod doesn't like sweet things, expect raspberry jam for some reason.'

Ichabod who? The Crane she knows devours anything she does, either he pretends very well to like them or he really just does. Especially liquorice.

'Trust me,' Abbie shoves the rest of the liquorice into her mouth, 'Crane loves liquorice.' Abbie doesn't notice how Katrina peers at her, or the way her eyes squint slightly.

'You also like liquorice,' she states quietly. Abbie fails to hear how dawning that statement sounded.

'It's crazy I know,' Abbie starts picking items off the shelves into the trolley as they walk along, 'most people hate liquorice. I thought he would too, when I gave it to him, but,' she shrugs, 'he doesn't.'

'May I try some?' Katrina reaches into the trolley.

'Knock yourself out. Be warned though, it does taste like tar. I'll be back,' she abandons the trolley, disappearing behind the next aisle. Katrina extracts one of the sweets, bringing it to her nose to smell before she puts it in her mouth.

'Ugh,' she complains, 'not very welcoming.' Choosing to ignore the smell, Katrina puts the sweet in her mouth, sucking on it lightly. The flavour is too strong, she doesn't like it, and it leaves a horrible taste in her mouth. She throws it back into the trolley. Why would Ichabod like such a thing, when he can't even stand strongly brewed coffee?

'I got you something,' Abbie comes around the aisle, 'I think you'll like it. Look,' she holds up a container hot chocolate, 'It's hot chocolate. Like tea or coffee, only it's not.'

'Why would I like it?' Katrina hold out a hand to receive the 'hot chocolate', 'I don't like the liquorice.'

'Well,' Abbie resumes pushing the trolley again, 'Crane doesn't like it, he can't stand the smell either, it's totally weird, but he really can't. So if ever he's having one of his moments, you know, when he's being super annoying and you just want to punch him, you just take out the hot chocolate as if to make it. It's fun seeing the reaction on his face. He just stops, and stills. I have no idea what it does to him, just that it sobers him,' Abbie smiles fondly, 'It was fun before I mean, he sees through it now, but I guess you can pretend you don't know all this.' Abbie doesn't realise what she's doing, it's not the dream of any wife to be told of their husband by some other woman. Katrina turns the container in her hand unconsciously, her interest only being how Abbie is talking about Ichabod.

'Miss Mills?' she calls, looking for a distraction from Abbie talking about her husband, 'What is that?'

She points to a small box. They're in the male section of body products. Katrina is pointing to a box of condoms. It must've been the size that caught her attention, Abbie thinks, because the box only has plain bold letters, nothing else eye-catching.

'Uh, those are...condoms. You don't need them.' Abbie is pretty sure they had some form of condoms in their era, she doesn't need to explain their function. She pushes past them with the trolley, until the very end of the aisle, Katrina behind her. Suddenly, it dawns on her that Katrina might very well need to buy condoms, she's never bought Ichabod condoms, she never had to, but...

'Yeah, uh,' she turns to Katrina, 'second thoughts, I think you need them after all. Maybe three boxes?'

Great Abbie, now you have the image of two boxes not being enough for one week, that's just super. Between explaining how tampons work, and buying condoms, Abbie doesn't think shopping with Katrina will work after all, it only reminds her that Katrina is Crane's wife. And she's not in Purgatory. It's not a very welcome reminder.

**I meant to make Abbie just unaware that she's adding onto Katrina's suspicions about her and Ichabod, but I also wanted Abbie to be very uncomfortable with Katrina being back. She doesn't know yet that her feelings for Ichabod are what they are, she just thinks that she's jealous that their friendship will be put on hold, because Katrina is back.**


End file.
